The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Vehicle article carriers are used in a wide variety of applications to support various types of articles thereon, and above an outer body surface of a vehicle. Typically a vehicle carrier article will include a pair of support rails that are secured to the outer body surface of the vehicle parallel to one another, and such that they extend along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. One or more cross bars are typically secured to the support rails to extend perpendicularly between the support rails. The cross bars are used to support articles thereon above the outer body surface.
Some previous vehicle article carrier systems have employed an integrated incandescent light for the purpose of providing additional illumination to help make the vehicle even more visible during night time driving. However, such systems have required electrical conductors (i.e., wires) to be run within portions of the vehicle article carrier, and more typically within the support rails, to the locations where the incandescent bulbs are located. As will be appreciated, this adds significant complexity to the construction of the vehicle article carrier system, as well as adding to its overall cost. It also necessitates some form of electrical connector for making the electrical connection between the electrical wiring of the vehicle article carrier and the vehicle wiring that is providing electrical power to the light(s) in the vehicle article carrier surface. The use of an electrical connection can have drawbacks if moisture should enter the electrical connector. Such a condition could potentially result in complete malfunctioning or intermittent malfunctioning of the light(s) employed in the vehicle article carrier system. Still further, the use of an incandescent bulb, which will typically have a relatively limited lifespan (in terms of hours), means that the incandescent bulb will need to be integrated into the vehicle article carrier in such a way that replacement of the bulb can be made, and preferably without the need to remove the support rails from the outer body surface or otherwise disassemble the subcomponents of the vehicle article carrier system. And as should be well understood, incandescent bulbs can be somewhat susceptible to breakage due to vibration. In a motor vehicle application, especially with vehicles such as vans and trucks that may be required to be driven “off-road” by contractors or like individuals going to a construction site, potentially very significant vibration may be encountered while driving.
In view of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the use of incandescent bulbs and conventional wiring in a vehicle article carrier system gives rise to a number of significant challenges relating to potential reliability of the electrical components of the system, and potentially dealing with repair and/or maintenance of such a system.